Here’s the beer news for Oregon for Friday the 17th of December, and going into the weekend. TGIF! I’ll be updating this post throughout the day, so contact me if you have some news you’d like to share.

Pelican Pub & Brewery (Pacific City) now has their Bridal Ale on tap, and will be bottling today to be ready in a few weeks (after bottle conditioning). Bridal Ale is a vintaged 7.5% abv Bière de Garde style seasonal originally brewed to celebrate the wedding of Pelican brewer Travis Zeilstra and server Jen Pelletier and was popular enough (and award-winning enough!) to come back each year since. And relatedly, Pelican’s Le Pelican Brun is also available (both on tap and in the bottle).

Golden Valley Brewery (McMinnville) is opening a second location in Beaverton (slated to open in January) and they’ve just launched a Facebook page for the new location. They’ve posted some photos of the progress thus far and promise a firm opening date soon. I reviewed Golden Valley back in 2008 and if the Beaverton location is anything like the original, they’ll be very successful.

Flat Tail Brewing (Corvallis): The are expanding the brewing team from one to three—up until now the brewing show was run by Dave Marliave by himself, but now he’s being joined by brewer Sean Martin and cellar hand Jon Reed. “Stop by in a few weeks for Sean’s first recipes; an English Pale fermented in Cider Barrels, and a Scottish Wee Heavy fermented in our open tank.” Congrats!

Plew’s Brews (Portland beer bar located in St. John’s) is hosting their very first Annual Winter Beer Fest this weekend, starting today (the 16th) and lasting through Sunday (the 18th). The hours are 5pm to midnight Friday, noon to midnight Saturday, and noon to 6pm Sunday. Brewpublic has a great writeup, including the beer list—a solid representation of some great winter beers and some nice rarities. Pricing is pretty standard: $15 for a glass and 10 tickets, $1 per ticket for a 4-ounce pour.

Upcoming tastings, releases, and “Meet the Brewer” events:

• Upright Brewing (Portland) is holding a tasting with Brewer Alex Ganum at Bottles tonight, from 6:30 to 9:30pm. In addition to the year-round offerings look for some special seasonal beers.
• Migration Brewing (Portland) is debuting their new Sassy Lass Imperial Stout tomorrow (Saturday) at the brewery, from 5 to 8pm. Migration posted a bit more about Sassy Lass here; it’s 8.5% abv with 76 IBUs, and was brewed as a tribute beer to the brewer’s girlfriend.
• The Green Dragon (Portland) is hosting a Christmas Vs. Hanukah (aka “Hanukah Hoedown Throwdown“) tomorrow (Saturday) from 5 to 11:30pm: “We’ll be having a Hanukah Hoedown Throwdown with Shmaltz Brewing pitting 5 of their rare Hanukah beers against 5 rare Christmas beers by Lompoc Brewing.” Reps from both breweries will be on hand and there will be prizes raffled—so even though it’s a “competition” everybody wins!
• Three Creeks Brewing (Sisters) is holding a vertical tasting of their holiday beer, Rudolph Imperial Red, on Saturday starting at 4pm. This is featuring vintages from 2008 through this year, though the available slots for the tasting may already be closed (the Facebook post was added on Wednesday and they indicated there was only one slot left). Of course you can call the brewery directly at 541-549-1963 to see if that one slot is still open.